The Brumos Collection

As this weekend’s highly anticipated Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance kicks into gear, there’s a new video with the event’s founder and chairman, Bill Warner, giving an insider’s look at what makes the annual exhibition so special.

“A Conversation with Bill Warner from The Amelia Island Concours” is the latest episode in the Florida-based Brumos Collection’s special series entitled “Inside the 59” and shares Warner’s unique perspective.

In the presentation, Warner recalls the earliest days of the event—the first was held at the Ritz-Carlton Amelia Island, on Amelia Island, Fla., back in 1996—and talks about its many highlights over the years, its honored guests and also traces its rise to prominence.

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Warner, a businessman, car collector, photographer and writer, also talks passionately about his seven-decade relationship with the Brumos brand, and most recently, with its remarkable Brumos Collection, a museum that opened last year and features landmark Porsches and other important automobiles.
It seems that when the Brumos Collection was getting ready to debut its 35,000-square-foot facility, Warner was asked to supply some of his photography featuring the key race-car drivers who piloted Porsches for Team Brumos in 1959 and 1960. These include names such as Hurley Heywood, Peter Gregg and Roger Penske.

A few of Bill Warner’s images from racing grace the walls of the Brumos Collection museum. 

Photo: Courtesy of the Brumos Collection.

Many of those photographs are also showcased in a newly released book of Warner’s iconic images, called The Other Side of the Fence: Six Decades of Motorsports Photography. According to Warner, in the early days of the Amelia Island Concours, the Brumos Collection proved invaluable in loaning many of its rarest-of-the-rare racing Porsches to help raise the profile of the event.
“Every major show has great collections in their backyard they draw from,” Warner explains. “The Brumos Collection has a phenomenal selection of cars, which can make or break the excitement that you’re trying to produce with a Concours d’Elegance.”

The crowded concours lawn. 

Photo by Steven J Robertson, courtesy of the Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance.

As for the origins of that Brumos name, Warner explains that the original Porsche dealership was founded by Jacksonville VW dealer Hubert Brundage. When Brundage opened his new Porsche store back in 1962, he used the company’s Telex code, shortening “Brundage” and “Motors” to the “Brumos” moniker.
Fast forward to 2021, and after a year of pretty much every key concours being cancelled due to Covid-19, Warner is excited to be welcoming enthusiasts back to Amelia Island.

The 1922 Miller 122 Junior 8 Special that won Best of Show at Amelia Island in 2009. 

Photo: Courtesy of the Brumos Collection.

This weekend will feature a special “Chevy Thunder” display tracing Chevrolet’s racing history. Another main presentation will highlight the development of electric vehicles, including everything from the wonderfully named 1895 Morris and Salom Electrobat IV to the new all-electric Cadillac Lyriq.

In 2017, a 1939 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B Lungo Spider earned Best of Show Concours de Sport, and a 1935 Duesenberg Model SJ-582 garnered Best of Show Concours d’Elegance. 

Photo by Deremer Studios LLC, courtesy of the Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance.

The traditional Saturday morning Cars & Coffee display is also back, as is the RM Sotheby’s classic car auction. And this year’s concours honoree is racer Lyn St. James, who in 1992 became the first woman to be named the Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year.

Motorsport royalty Richard Petty and Bill Warner at a previous edition of the concours. 

Photo: Courtesy of the Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance.

As before, the concours raises money—over $3.75 million so far—to benefit Community Hospice & Palliative Care, Spina Bifida of Jacksonville and other local and national charities.

There are cars, and then there are cars. Of all the 1980s-era Porsches, the 959 tops the pyramid. As groundbreaking as it was bank-breaking, the 959 pushed limits, and offered a glimpse into the 911’s ultimate future at a time when the rear-engined oddity’s head was on the chopping block. It was a harbinger of advanced engineering that would trickle down to more accessible models, and featured Porsche’s implementation of all-wheel drive and twin-turbocharging, while being the first supercar to crest the 200 mph mark in refined luxury.

Between 1986 and 1988, only 292 examples were made, in addition to 37 prototypes and pre-production models, with an additional eight cobbled together at the factory through 1993 for special customers. But the 959 didn’t just emerge, like Botticelli’s Venus, from a scallop shell in Stuttgart. Like all brilliant automotive designs, it was developed through prototypes, one of which is in the Brumos Collection. Like most 959s, this one is silver, and was a pre-production car gifted by Dr. Wolfgang Porsche to the man who fathered it, Project Chief Engineer Helmuth Bott.
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It’s rare to encounter one of these jewels on the road, and so the Brumos Collection’s Inside the 59 video episode titled “Porsche 959 Project” is a five-minute Porsche-gasm that lets viewers see and hear a special example come to life. Bott’s car remains remarkably original, and is regularly driven to maintain it in peak condition.
The Brumos Collection’s Porsche 959 prototype.  Photo: Courtesy of the Brumos Collection.

The 959 was originally designed to compete as a Group B rally car, with homologation requiring 200 units to be manufactured. But that racing series ended abruptly in 1987, with the 959 project well underway. The automobile’s 2.8-liter, twin-turbocharged flat-six engine develops 450 hp. That was well beyond the Porsche 930 Turbo’s output at the time, and double the 911 Carrera’s power.
Like the 1973 Carrera RS, the 959 was offered in Sport and Komfort trim. The model was a “statement” piece and, like some halo cars before it (Ford’s Continental Mk II or BMW’s 507, for instance), cost the automaker far more to make than it could be originally sold for, even priced at $225,000, which was roughly half of its production cost in 1987.
The prototype 959’s 2.8-liter, twin-turbocharged flat-six engine makes 450 hp.  Photo: Courtesy of the Brumos Collection.

Not only does the museum, which opened to the public again on January 21, take its example to the local roads near Jacksonville, Fla., but the vehicle spends some time running and revving on a four-wheel dyno, a useful tool for data analysis and general maintenance, while exercising the engine and gearbox without traveling an inch.
The seats retain the dizzying black-and-white print on Pasha fabric.  Photo: Courtesy of the Brumos Collection.

The video also lets viewers in on some details ordinarily unseen. Fascinating is that many parts and panels on the car have the notation “V6” either stamped, engraved or written on them, most likely designating the example as the sixth prototype of the 959 to be built. And of course, no Porsche from the past features an interior as outrageous as the ones whose seats were upholstered—like Bott’s 959—in wild Pasha fabric displaying a black-and-white Op Art pattern so outrageously hip that it hurts.

The automobile museum, closed due to the pandemic after debuting last year, will welcome the public with a 1925 Bugatti and stable of other rare racers.